"A
Remembrance of the Past; Building for the Future." ~ Eve
Eckert Koehler

Remembering Our Danube Swabian Ancestors

The
So-called Settlement Patent

by Peter Lang
Translation by Brad Schwebler

(Ref.
Eimann, page 48) "was
essential for the development of the parent community"

It
reads word for word:

We the people of Josef the Second, chosen Roman Emperor
by his gracious God, through all times in the majority of the Empire,
king of Hungary, Bohemia, Galicia, and Lodomeria, do (thun) herewith (Jedermänniglich
kund) that we in our kingdom of Hungary, Galicia, and Lodomeria possessed many
unoccupied, empty, and desolate lands which we thought to settle with German
members of the Empire, especially from the upper Rhine region. In the end we promise, by our drilled-in imperial royal
slogan to all of our migrating families of the Empire, which we are in need of
many thousand of farm families and professionals:

First:
A perfect conscience and religious freedom (Freyheit) as each religious party (Partey)
is provided the most completely needed clergy and teachers belonging to it.

Second:
Each family was provided with a respectable new roomy country house with a
garden beside it.

Third:
The
field hands with each family were presented with the necessary ground in
existing good fields and meadows as well as the necessary draft and breed
livestock, then field and home implements.

Fourth:
The
professionals and day workers on the other hand merely had those appliances in
the landlord’s house to enjoy but the professionals are paid 50 Rhine Guilders
to acquire their craftsman’s implements.

Fifth:
The
oldest son of each family is and remains free from military recruitment.

Sixth:
Each
family received free transportation from Vienna to the village and place of
settlement where the necessary travel money was paid.
After that they were provided for just so long until the family is
settled and can provide for themselves. But
after a period of support one family or the other has three years to refund all
advances to get out of debt.

Seventh:
If
the new arrivals became sick because of the climate or the trip, they were put
up in a hospital and cared for free of charge to return them to their previously
healthy condition.

Eighth:
Finally
these immigrants from the Empire were promised to be completely free and remain
free from land and government taxes for ten years (Abgabe und Lasten as they
called them). But after the course
of these ten years they are obligated to pay the usual reasonable tax like other
landowners.

Which
decision and opinion (Willensmeinung) we acknowledge the truth with this
certificate sealed by our K.K. pressed on the secretary's insignia for
confirmation. So it was presented
to Vienna on the 21st of September in the year 1782.
Our Roman Empire in the 90's, the Hungarian and Bohemian on the second (zweyten).